The summit, which will be hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is expected to launch a new stage in Turkey’s relations with Africa, according to Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit will take place in Istanbul on 17-18 December.
The summit, which will be hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is expected to launch a new stage in Turkey’s relations with the African Union and African countries, according to Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
The date of the long-awaited event – which has been postponed twice – was announced by Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu during a visit to Turkey by Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, in late September.
Speaking at a news conference on 30 September, Çavusoglu said that Turkey’s approach to Africa is based on the principle of “African solutions to Africa’s problems”.
“We aim to support Africa’s development efforts and increase commercial, cultural and human relations between us,” he said, noting that Turkey had been a strategic partner of the African Union (AU) since 2008.
Referring to the growth in ties between Turkey and Africa over the last two decades, he also noted that the volume of bilateral trade between Turkey and Africa had risen to $25bn by the end of 2020 and that the number of Turkish embassies in Africa had risen from 12 in 2002 to the current figure of 43, with a mission soon to open in Guinea-Bissau.
Meanwhile, the number of African embassies in Ankara rose from 10 in 2008 to 37 in 2021, according to the MFA.
Growth of Turkey’s footprint in Africa
Ankara’s presence has been growing rapidly on the continent under President Erdoğan, who has visited more African countries than any other African leader.
In 1998 a coalition government led by Mesut Yilmaz began to redefine Turkey’s international role, moving it away from its status as an ally of the West towards a more active global presence but it was after Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) took power that the relationship really began to change. 2005 was designated “The Year of Africa” and in 2008 Turkey became a strategic partner of the AU (see below).
In addition to the growth in trade, Turkish foreign direct investment grew from $100m in 2003 to $6.5bn in 2021, and Turkish companies have become increasingly present across the continent, especially in the construction sector.
What began with economic outreach has progressed into a complex Africa policy encompassing business, aid, diplomacy, culture and military support.
Tensions with Egypt
Tensions with Egypt have caused setbacks in this otherwise largely positive progression, according to former Turkish diplomat Yusuf Kenan Küçük.
There has been a polarisation between Turkey and Qatar on one side and Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt on the other, over conflicts in Syria and Libya. The two blocs also have clashes of interests in Sudan and the Horn of Africa.
Turkey’s failure to recognise the legitimacy of General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government after the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 has led to further tensions with Cairo.
The first postponement of the Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, due to take place in 2019, occurred at a time Egypt held the chairmanship of the AU.
Writing in February 2020, Küçük suggested that “African countries might take into account possible reactions from Egypt when they consider improving relations with Turkey”.
In March 2021 Turkey announced that diplomatic ties had resumed, but this was denied by Egypt. However, despite the break in diplomatic relations, trade between the two countries has continued to flourish.
Criticism of Western approach to Africa
In its dealings with Africa Turkey has presented itself as a friend of the continent free of the exploitative and racist baggage of former colonial powers.
“We are here on the continent with a win-win strategy,” the Turkish ambassador to South Africa, Elif Comoglu Ulgen, told African Business in February.
In October 2021, President Erdoğan undertook a tour of three African countries, meeting leaders and investors in Angola, Nigeria and Togo.
“As Turkey, we reject Western-centred Orientalist approaches to the African continent. We embrace the peoples of the African continent without discrimination,” he said in a speech to the Angolan parliament.
Turkey has also been critical of the West over its failure to give Africa greater support during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Togo President Erdoğan announced that Turkey would be donating Covid-19 vaccines to the region, a promise that was followed up on 7 December with the delivery of vaccines to Togo and Burkina Faso by the Organisation of Turkic States.
According to the Turkish daily Hurriyet, a third of the 600,000 doses delivered were Sinovac jabs allocated by Turkey.
President Erdoğan also took up the theme at October’s Turkey-Africa Economic and Business Forum (see below).
“Turkey is proud to have contributed to African countries in their fight against the novel coronavirus with Turkish-made respirators, masks and overalls,” he told delegates.
“The peoples of Africa were unfortunately left to their fate in the face of the virus while Western developed countries were engaged in mask wars. The essence of our relations with Africa is sincerity, brotherhood and solidarity.”
Evolution of the Turkey-Africa summits
Previous editions of the partnership summit were held in 2008 and 2014, in Istanbul and Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, respectively.
The 2008 summit formalised the strategic partnership between Turkey and the AU and adopted compacts which determined a wide range of primary areas for cooperation, ranging from intergovernmental cooperation, trade and investment to security and educational ties.
The 2014 summit led to a Joint Implementation Plan for 2015-19. The plan was reviewed at a meeting of senior officials in March 2015 and a list of priority projects was drawn up.
In a 2018 ministerial review conference held in Istanbul, it was agreed to develop concrete projects, in line with Agenda 2063.
According to the MFA, projects have been implemented in the fields of trade and investment, peace and security, education and culture, youth empowerment and technology transfer, rural economy and agriculture, energy and transportation.
In preparation for the coming summit, Turkey has submitted to the AU a report on Turkish-African cooperation between 2015 and 2020 and a five-year action plan for the coming period.
Turkey aims to double bilateral trade with Africa
Three editions of the Turkey-Africa Economic and Business Forum have also taken place, with the most recent in Istanbul on 21-22 October 2021.
The theme of the forum was “Deepening Turkey-Africa Partnership: Trade, Investment, Technology and Logistics”.
According to the MFA, it was attended by 2,500 participants from Turkey and 71 countries (including 46 African countries), with 43 high-level speakers, 22 ministers, four deputy ministers and representatives of African regional economic communities among the participants.
President Erdoğan announced that Turkey aims to double its bilateral trade volume with Africa to $50bn.
The pledge was echoed by the chairman of Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK), Nail Olpak, who said: “Signing free trade agreements, agreements to reciprocally strengthen and protect investments, besides cooperation and knowledge-sharing in the fields of industrialisation, agriculture, construction, textiles and health, are our priorities.”
Speaking to Turkish state broadcaster TRT at the forum, Fahti Akbullut, the president of the Turkish-African Business Association said that people had realised that the partnership between Turkey and Africa was not a short-term thing.
“It is actually something the Turkish government is looking to on the long run. Realising this, a lot of countries that are looking for foreign direct investment (FDI) are looking into Turkey to see how they can take this cooperation to the next level,” he told the broadcaster.
‘Without Africa there cannot be a prosperous world’
In comments on the sidelines of the forum to Anadolu Agency, the Turkish foreign ministry’s director-general for Africa, Nur Sağman said: “We want to develop together. We want to support [African countries] and be on their side.”
“Everyone will one day realise that without Africa, there cannot be a prosperous world. That’s why we all need to move forward, hand in hand with Africa,” she added.
Referring to the upcoming summit, she said: “It will be an extremely important event. We hope to welcome many heads of state.”
The 2014 summit in Malabo was attended by Mauritania, Ethiopia, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Libya, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt, with most of these countries represented by their head of state, although President Sisi of Egypt did not attend; 32 other countries attended as observers.
Source: african.business